The Wendish Research Exchange - Šěn, Franc: Four Songs of Praise to the Peasantry

Lětopis Abstract 2019 2: Franc Šěn: Four Songs of Praise to the Peasantry

There are four small anonymous printed leaflets in the library of the National Museum of Prague. They are undated with no indication of location or year and contain four hymns of praise to the peasantry, written in the Upper Sorbian Catholic dialect. Based on the themes and details of the print, they seem to originate from the 1790s. Two texts are formally different translations of Gottlob Wilhelm Burmann’s song, “The Peasant is a Noble Man” which contain in one case two and in the other case three additional verses critical of the nobility and town folk, which have not yet been found in any German version. Two further texts, which present an idealised picture of the life of the Sorbian peasant in winter, could have been written by Bosćij Michał Wićaz (= Sebastian Michael Lehmann, 1747–1803) from Prautitz. If these leaflets were not confiscated as a result of the more severe censorship in relation to the peasant uprisings in 1790 in Electoral Saxony, the prudent printer or the author himself may pulped them.